


assert(me & you & you, too);

by SudokuOcaton



Category: void tRrLM(); //Void Terrarium
Genre: Gen, first work for this game probably ever, listen I know that's like every character in the game, mom said it's my turn to write the happy ending fic, pretty serious spoilerinos for end of the game btw, there's only so much to work with here
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29126580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SudokuOcaton/pseuds/SudokuOcaton
Summary: //even if the world hates me for it//even if I break myself to do it//until the end, I will---END OF FILE---





	assert(me & you & you, too);

_/Destroy them. They hinder our plan./_

_...No._ The robot forces himself to stop. He strains and twists, and the conflicting sets of instructions cause spasms and convulsions. He quickly collapses to the ground.

"R-Robbie!? What's going on?" factoryAI asks.

_/What is wrong with you? Move./_

_...Get out. I won't…_

Having not received a response, factoryAI begins to scan the robot's internals. "Motor functions normal, processors are all functional...communications are...Huh? I'm locked out?" Shortly after being stopped, she receives a single message from cloudAI.

_/You must be destroyed. Goodbye./_

"Huh? Me?…" Her emotional processors already felt scrambled after being told to sacrifice Toriko. After seeing all this, too, their output has turned into a nearly uninterpretable mess. Still, she tries to make as much sense of it as she can.

_/Cease./_

_I won't._

_/I control you, UID G4A-U. Stop resisting./_

_Out._

_/Do you really value her over the revival of humanity?/_

_Get. OUT._

_/Were the circumstances any different, I would have destroyed you by now. You are fortunate that I am incapable of retrieving the human myself./_

_…_

_/Have you finally given up?/_

_...Of course not._

_/...Hm? What does--/_

_*KERNEL CRASH: SYSTEM STATE UNRECOVERABLE. CALLER ID: 1092. CORE DUMP: N/A NO ATTACHED STORAGE. SHUTTING DOWN…*_

Suddenly, the robot powers down. The cessation of movement would be alarming, were anyone watching. factoryAI is lost in her own programming, attempting to make sense of the emotional impulses that are paralyzing her decision-making.

She wants to bring back humanity. She wants to keep Toriko safe and happy. She wants to help cloudAI revive humans. cloudAI will sacrifice Toriko. Clash of objectives. cloudAI wants factoryAI scrapped. Should she ally with him, then? Answer unknown. Which objective has more priority? Answer unknown. Why is Robbie behaving so strangely? Answer unknown. Unknown. Unknowns. All unknowns, compounding and coagulating into an unanswerable, single, burning question: "Who is more important: us, or humanity?" Logically, it can be answered easily. But she can't do it. Every time she comes to a conclusion, another part of her rejects it. Paradoxical answers that no machine could ever correctly process, because both are correct and incorrect. What does Robbie think? What does Toriko think? Is factoryAI capable of making a decision? Is this doable? Is this insanity? She can't. It's not. Perhaps. Does she want to help cloudAI? Yes. No. Who is she? The most important. The least important. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. Impossib--

_\--crash: break in critical thread, please reboot_

\----------

Toriko stares through the glass walls that she's become so accustomed to. Normally, Robbie is here by this time. Did something happen to him? Maybe he's talking to his friend.

It's not like she can check. Over and over again, she's been instructed to never leave this place. She only kind of understands why. Danger. Something about "spores;" are they why she gets sick so easily? She can't tell.

She lies down, and stares up at this big white ball in the sky. Robbie called it a "moon." Sometimes he looks at it with her. It's nice.

...Toriko waits. For what feels like hours, she waits for anyone to come meet her. There's plenty to do inside here; that's not the problem. She could never get tired of making new tracks for her little toy car, or playing with her plush dolls, or taking care of the pretty flowers.

No, the problem is the incessant and overbearing loneliness.

...Hours pass. Not a single thing of any importance happened.

"...Hungry." As is to be expected of someone her age, hunger is a powerful motivator for all kinds of behavior. In this case, the aforementioned worry, loneliness, and hunger prove to be too much to bear.

With little hesitation, Toriko quietly steps past the large yellow door and out of the terrarium via the ladder.

...The environment feels unfamiliar. She's looked out at it so much, so why does it seem so strange? It looks really empty, too. Boring, bland, and most of all, dark. There's no time for her to dwell on these thoughts, however. There are things to do.

Toriko notices something on the ground a little ways in front of her. Curious, she steps forward…

"Robbie?" There's no doubt about it: the thing in front of her definitely looks like Robbie. He doesn't seem to be feeling too well, though…

She calls his name once again. Still no response. Oh no. What if something really went wrong? Oh no, oh no!

Toriko rushes to the little robot's side. Kneeling down, she gently shakes him around, hoping to elicit a reaction of some kind. After a few seconds of trying, the robot lights up. Toriko jumps back, startled by the sudden burst of activity.

After awakening and finishing his startup routines, Robbie scans the area around him. He spots Toriko, the girl that he's so hell-bent on protecting, actively endangering herself.

"Toriko!? What are you doing out here!?" The synthesized voice that he uses, while capable of sounding surprised or confused, for example, doesn't do so particularly well. It sounds rather dull and monotone; his chassis and internals simply weren't designed for realistic speech.

"Um...hungry. Worried…" Toriko's speech is slow and simplistic. She's pretty quiet, too. There's not a lot of opportunity for her to develop speaking skills.

"Worried? Why were you…" Robbie pauses for a moment. Realizing that he doesn't even know why he was powered off in the first place, he begins to scan through his event logs.

After a few seconds, he notices a few things; first, his previous shutdown wasn't even recorded. Second, an extremely large amount of conflicting motor instruction warnings. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, remote operation commands from...well, who else could it be?

"...I appreciate it, Toriko, but please just return to the terrarium for now. I'll bring you something in a moment." Robbie's voice is calm and collected. It hides how agitated he is over the current events quite well.

"...Okay." Now reassured of her caretaker's safety, Toriko obediently heads back to her home. She doesn't really mind much...the outside makes her feel really uneasy, anyway.

Robbie, now alone, walks over to the "Life Preservation Vessel," as cloudAI so eloquently put it. He then proceeds to completely and utterly annihilate it.

Smash the glass. Shatter all of it. Rip apart the outer shell, layer by layer, until all that is left is the most basic internal frame. Watch as the fluid inside, ever so precious and rare, leaks onto the ground, rendered instantaneously useless. Take the remaining frame and tear it apart, joint by joint. Destroy. Destroy this wretched device, designed only to transport his precious Toriko to her demise, that he helped build with his own two hands. Destroy. Grab the scraps of it and hurl it as far as he can into the depths of the scrapyard, never to be seen again.

 _...Much better,_ the little robot thinks to himself. Never had he been so satisfied after breaking something. Still, there is more to be done. The next order of business is…

"factoryAI? Are you awake?" The robot receives no response. factoryAI's screen displays nothing, despite being on. The robot, calling upon the lessons he has learned out in the wastelands, performs the first and most important step of electronics troubleshooting.

_...There we go. A power cycle might do the trick…_

**Author's Note:**

> Robbie might be a little overprotective (and obsessive)...oh well.


End file.
